He leaned in closer to her ass to take a look at the bruising. “If you misbehave today you’ll feel my belt on your breasts. When I finish with your ass, I’ll rub some more arnica in. See if we can’t get your bruises to heal faster.”
Humans were so much more fragile, but Wendy’d been a werewolf and had still died from a stupid drunk driver. There weren’t any guarantees and he’d just have to hope fate dealt him a better hand this time.
He unfastened his jeans, set his gun and extra mags on a shelf, pulled his cock out, and donned a condom. Nickie tensed as she thought he was about to enter her, but then moaned when he circled her clit with his fingers, and she groaned in bliss when he sank two fingers back into her pussy. He pulled his fingers out long enough to get both hands slick, gave her two fingers where she wanted them again, and oh-so-gently traced the outside of her asshole with the pointer finger of his other hand.
Her pussy and ass both gave off a lot of heat and he had no doubt she was sore, but he was confident he could get her horny enough she didn’t care. Also, he’d thin his cock down enough she could handle him in her ass.
She didn’t know about that little trick, and he couldn’t let her figure it out. He’d have to be careful not to go too much narrower.
Five minutes later he was working her with two fingers in her pussy and one in her ass. She was on her way to an orgasm and he used his left hand to slick the condom more before he pressed it to her asshole and opened her with his cock.
“You don’t have permission to come, Brat. Hold onto it. I’d like nothing more than to turn your tits red with my belt — just give me a reason.”
Nickie had been determined not to beg for an orgasm, but she’d lose her mind if she didn’t come soon. Fuck, but his hand on her clit and his cock in her ass, and that damned sexy voice telling her she couldn’t come.
“Please. Fuck, Bud. Please! Let me come, I’m begging! You won the bet, just let me come already! Fuck!”
“You can come when I do.” He’d wiped his hands with a baby wipe earlier and they were clean and dry when his fingers curled around her shoulders for leverage while he pulled out and slammed in. “A few minutes rough and we’ll both get off. Wham, bam, thank you ma’am.”
“God yes, fuck me hard. Damn. Shit.”
And then there was no more talking because it was all she could do to breathe while he fucked her ass hard, fast, and ruthless. When he finally pressed into her bottom, his own back arched as he emptied his balls into the condom deep inside her, and he leaned on her more than he had before as her spasming anal muscles milked him through his orgasm. Nickie told herself he’d put more weight on her because she’d made his knees weak, but she didn’t have enough energy to taunt him over it.
He stood long enough to give her ass crack a few swipes with a baby wipe, pull the condom off and toss it and the wipe into the trash, and take two steps back with her in his arms before he sat heavily in a metal chair. He held her like a baby and she melted into him, not in the least worried about her jeans down around her knees.
“Fuck,” he told her. “It’s almost eight. You’re mine for seven days from now, until eight in the evening.”
“Have to work. Can’t be yours the whole time.” She sounded drugged even to her own ears, and he chuckled and kissed her forehead.
“No, just when I want to play with you. What are you working on?”
“Editing the grumpy detective, writing a werewolf romance, marketing a cozy mystery.”
“We’ll discuss your writing schedule later so I can be sure I don’t fuck with it too badly. Are you going to need a massage after your ride today? How often do you ride?”
“Ride a bicycle a lot, don’t often ride a motorcycle. I’m fine.” She lifted her head, met his gaze. “Damn, you melted my brain but I think it’s working again.”
He helped her stand and made sure she had her balance before he let go. They both took a few minutes to pull their pants up and put themselves back together.
“So, the lesson is to trust you?”
“Yeah. My way or the highway, but I’m not going to do something you can’t handle. You won’t always like what I do, and I’ll hurt you often, but I won’t injure you.”
“Okay then. Seven days, and I’ll tell you if it isn’t working for me.”
“Not everything’s gonna work for you. You’ll tell me if you start to consider avoiding me. I don’t intend for the arrangement to make you happy all the time.”
He touched under her chin and she lifted her gaze to meet his once again. “Gonna run you by the clubhouse for five or ten minutes, introduce you around as mine. You may see people having sex, getting spanked, giving blowjobs. Those aren’t ol’ladies. I won’t use you in front of anyone like that.”
He stepped back, looked at his phone, slid it into his pocket. “We’ll let your security have a say in whether I stay with you tonight or you stay with me, but you’ll be at my place at least a few nights of our week.”
“Wait, the bet includes spending the night together every night?”
“How the hell else do I have access to you?”
She hadn’t spent seven nights in a row with anyone in years. She wasn’t used to that kind of sex — not night after night.
“I’m already so sore.”
She said it more to herself than to him, but he chuckled and kissed the tip of her nose. “Not even close to how you’ll feel seven days from now.”
Nickie expected the clubhouse to look a lot like the office, but she was surprised to find hardwood floors, new-ish leather sofas, nice pool tables, and five big screen televisions spread around the room. All were showing a ball game or a hunting program, and all had closed captioning turned on. Only one had the volume up so it could be heard, and it went mute shortly after Bud started talking.
“This is Nickie.” He dropped her hand and wrapped his hand around the back of her neck. “She’s mine. She has her own security team, but she uses Drake so most of you will know at least some of them. Don’t give them a hard time.”
“Who’s after her?”
“Human trafficking ring. Long story.” He moved his hand from the back of her neck to around her waist. “She’s an investigative journalist.”
The entire room went quiet and she sensed hostility, but a big guy from the back of the room said, “Bud wouldn’t have brought her if she was going to report on us.”
“Exactly right. As long as she doesn’t discover illegal activity, everything’s off the record with her — and since we’re just a bunch of bikers who own a bar and a bike shop together, there’s nothing for her to find.”
Nickie was certain there was something, though for personal reasons she hoped she was wrong. He hadn’t found one of her loopholes, so if she found something illegal she’d have the option of writing a ‘based on a true story’ book of her time with them. She hoped they didn’t give her the opportunity, but she needed to figure out what they were hiding. If it was just a tax thing she could let it go, but if they were pimping out women or running guns, she couldn’t stay quiet. Wouldn’t stay quiet.
“We aren’t staying,” Bud told them. “Just wanted to put out the introductions. She comes to anyone needing help, she gets it.”
“Those boots are new. She ever been on a bike before?”
“She’s ridden the Alps,” Bud told them with a grin. “She rented a bike and took off to the mountains north of the city today. Needed to get out and clear her head.”
“Is there a plan to capture whoever’s after her?” someone else asked.
“Working on it.” Bud put his hand to the small of her back and turned her towards the door. “Ya’ll behave. I’m out until morning unless someone’s shot or arrested.”
They were only a few blocks from Nickie’s condo, and her guards said it should be safe to ride with Bud on his bike. She started to ask if they could ride around a while, but she knew it would be a hassle so she didn’t say anything.
“Who’s s
taying through the night?” Nickie knew all four guards would likely hear them having sex at some point, but she hoped it’d be the same two from the night before, so at least whoever it was would know what to expect.
“They have you,” Bud told her. “You’re paying for the best. Let them do their job.”
“She does,” Ranger told Bud. “The questions she asks are usually her wanting to be sure she isn’t making it harder than necessary for us to protect her.”
“As far as I know,” she told Ranger, “we’re in for the night. I’ll want to work out and eat breakfast somewhere I can write tomorrow morning. Ya’ll can figure out where, I’ll let you know when once I’m up.” She looked at Bud and then back to her guards. “It would appear Bud’s going to be around enough we need to figure him into any emergency plans. He’s carrying a forty-five, and my Kahr and bellyband should arrive tomorrow.” She couldn’t wait to have her gun on her hip again.
Ranger nodded to Bud and told Nickie, “We were going to ask you about it tomorrow when he wasn’t around, to see how you wanted to bring it up. It’s good you’re getting it out into the open.” He looked at Bud. “We’re the first line of protection. We’ll go over the plans with you, but just as you expect your men to do as they’re told when guns are out, we need you to follow orders, too.” He glanced at Nickie and looked back to Bud. “Nickie’s stood side-by-side with Tyler, her regular guy, and fought the enemy more than once. I’ve read the reports and heard the stories from him. However, when he has the situation under control and doesn’t need help, she moves into a protected area at his orders. If we need her extra firepower I’ll call on her help, if I don’t, she needs to stay out of the way. Same goes for you.”
“Why isn’t her regular guy here?”
“He’s in New York on another assignment,” Nickie told him. “I try to let him know weeks ahead of time when I’ll need him, usually. Someone else has him now. I’ve worked with Ranger and Mac when Tyler needed to pull more people in. I don’t know the other two guys, but that’s okay. I need to know you can work with my people, though. Can you follow their orders and let them take the lead?”
Bud didn’t know it, but the next words out of his mouth were going to dictate whether Nickie gave him a chance at something more than a short-term fuckbuddy. His ‘my way or the highway’ thing might work for sex — though the jury was still out on how she’d feel in a week — but no way in hell would it work outside the bedroom. If he didn’t readily agree to let her security team lead, she didn’t need him in her life.
Bud looked at Ranger to answer. “As long as you include me in your briefings so I know who to look out for and the general game plan for each day, I’m good with that. I’ll watch over her wherever you send her to keep her safe. No problem. If you need me to step up and fight, I can do that too.”
13
Aaron Drake himself had shown up for this meeting, and Nickie noted he and Bud seemed to be a lot more than business associates.
She’d learned the network in Chattanooga is interconnected like a spider’s web. Mac and Ranger’s girlfriend, Bethany, is the best friend of the Chattanooga RTMC President’s wife. And Aaron Drake’s wife’s main bodyguard is the third male in Mac and Ranger’s four-person poly group. Bud’s daughter, Angelica, is friends with Bethany and married to the Chattanooga RTMC enforcer, and it all made Nickie think of a small town. Chattanooga’s a mid-sized city though, and all the connections were hard to keep up with.
Nickie sat between Special Agent Frank Peretti and Special Agent Maggie Chambers, while Bud sat across the table from her next to Aaron Drake and the rest of her security people.
Aaron started first, and he clicked his laptop as a little device projected images onto the wall. “Ms. Bell paid me to hire some private detectives, to see if we could find the identity or location of the men and women in question. None appear to be American citizens, but we found an arrest record in New York from twenty years ago that matches one of the men when we regress his photo back.”
He walked through his findings, and Nickie noted the FBI agents didn’t appear to have Aaron’s information.
“We believe we should follow these threads,” said Ranger, “instead of using Nicole as bait.”
“No,” said Nickie. “I’m told our people lost them because there’s only so much they can do when operating in a foreign country. If Aaron’s right — and it sounds like he might be — then they’re spread throughout Europe and the Middle East and the same thing’ll happen again. Let’s bring them here so we can take care of them once and for all.”
Nickie looked beside her to Agent Peretti. “If we do this in North Carolina, I’ll be far enough from my current base in Atlanta. North Carolina’s Castle Doctrine lets me shoot anyone who enters my residence — even a temporary one, which the cabin will be since I’ll rent it in my name. There isn’t much risk to me. I’ll set up a damned armory inside and I’ll ventilate anyone who comes in without identifying themselves as one of my team. Ya’ll will arrest them before it comes to that, but if it does, no one’s going to hurt me.”
“I’ll go as your boyfriend,” said Bud. “You won’t be in there alone.”
“No extra civilians,” Agent Peretti countered. “We’ve been through this before with her security detail. If she needs a pretend boyfriend, the FBI will supply him.”
“Frank,” said Nickie, using his first name for effect, “Ranger, Bud, and I will be in the house and we’ll pretend to be a threesome. I know how you feel about civilians but I want my people with me this time, and since I’m volunteering to be bait, I think I have the leverage to get what I want. I’ve seen a map and pictures. There are three cabins within a half-mile of each other and all three are now rented for the time we’re considering. There isn’t another residence for miles around, so we don’t have to worry about stray bullets catching an innocent.”
Nickie turned to Agent Chambers. “Mags, our little threesome will be in one cabin, and the rest of my people will be in another. You and Frank are welcome to join them. I handed them to ya’ll on a silver platter and your people lost them last time. I want my people involved this time. I’m tired of having to be under twenty-four hour guard.”
“Based on what I know of these guys, Nathan will be a better choice than Ranger for your third.” Aaron looked at Bud. “I assume you’ll be fine pretend-sharing her with Nathan if you were okay with Ranger?”
“Not thrilled, but I’ll be happy to have his skillset.”
Aaron looked back to Nickie. “I’ll get your measurements before I leave, and you’ll receive a bill for body armor soon. Nathan will bring it with him.”
“I have a vest.”
“Not this kind of vest because it isn’t available to civilians.”
“Okay. If you say I need it, make it happen. I should’ve listened to Tyler about taking someone with me to Cancun, but I was convinced no one could find Nicole Blackthorn when they only knew me as Nicole Daniels.” She sighed. “You know my budget. If we start getting close to going over I’d appreciate a heads up.”
“It’s a generous budget. We’re fine for now and I don’t foresee us going over.”
It took them an hour to work through the specifics, and another hour to negotiate who’d be where. Nicole had sat with the FBI agents to keep from giving the appearance of ‘us against them,’ but she was well aware their bosses were more interested in catching the traffickers than keeping her safe. She believed Frank and Mags would do what they could to protect her, but she didn’t trust the people over them.
Bud didn’t like leaving Nickie alone at night, but Aaron Drake had insisted on a meeting of all the supernaturals while he was in town, and he’d let Bud know Abbott would be attending.
The FBI Agents were human, and Bud wondered if Aaron was bringing Abbott in the event someone’s memory needed to be wiped. If Aaron wanted Nathan involved then they were most likely up against a powerful cat or another kind of Alpha-something.
�
�There are things Nicole isn’t aware of,” Abbott told the group when they’d all assembled in the soundproof basement living room of a local vampire. The place gave Bud the heeby-jeebies, but Abbott had chosen the meeting place. “The human trafficking ring has a deal with demonkind for protection in exchange for a percentage of their acquisitions.”
“Demonkind,” asked Nathan, “or the Celrau?”
“Evidence points both ways and we can’t be certain without asking questions best not asked at this juncture,” said Gavin as he stepped from the shadows.
Bud hadn’t smelled him or seen him, and he hated when vampires did that.
“However, our biggest problem is that one of my enemies of old appears to be the group leader.” Abbott looked to Bud. “Nicole has missing pieces of memory, as do the FBI agents who were with her, and even Tyler and Mac. Because of this, Gavin, Kendra, or I will be with you for any further dealings with them.”
Bud knew that not all Strigorii vampires were good, but the idea of coming against one as powerful as Abbott, and who was only interested in getting away with evil — the thought chilled him to the bone. He didn’t bother asking how or when Abbott had probed Nickie’s mind. He could fly by her condo and dip into her head and only needed a dark night so he wouldn’t be seen flying.
“That’s how the traffickers know all her identities? Their vampire got them from her head?”
“We believe so,” said Aaron.
“Game plan?” he asked.
“They have several powerful Strigorii,” said Aaron, “and a male and female lion who lead a pride. They often bring along other lions as muscle.”
“I can demobilize the lions,” said Nathan, “but they also have a pack of werehyenas. The hyenas travel with a djinn for their acquisitioning trips and appear to only be involved in that aspect, but there’s no guarantee they’ll stay out of this. Nicole’s involvement has hurt everyone’s bottom line.”
“Right. We should be prepared for all of them, because I believe the hyenas have been bound to the Strigorii Master, much the way Abbott and I can bind wolves to us.” Gavin looked to Bud. “I’ll put a marker in Nicole’s memory when I arrive outside your cabin the first night, and I’ll begin there with her revised memories when everything’s over. If you want to have some extra fun with her, she won’t remember. You’ll just have to be careful of marks you might have trouble fitting into her altered memories.”
Bud (Rolling Thunder Motorcycle Club Book 10) Page 11
